I have been around this site for a mouth now and I want to ask you guys where to start.
At this point I have nothing other than some music and a desktop computer. I’d like to start djing as a hobby and have no idea where to start, what to buy, and how to mix. I have very little money at this point so please keep it cheap. I would really like to play bass music, dance, house, dubstep, eletronic music in general. I have no knowledge of lingo, terms , etc.. so please keep it in lamemans terms.
At this point I’m a guy who likes music that can’t play an instrument, and would like to take it the next level.
First get some DJ software and mono splitter cable (latter if you only have one stereo output in your computer).
On the software side, two big ones are Traktor and Serato. Neither is free, but you can get trial or demo version (at least NI has trial version for Traktor). Good option is Mixxx, which is completely free. You can mix with keyboard and mouse for starters, to see if it’s for you.
Then you need separate master out and headphone outs. Probably the cheapest option is to get stereo to dual mono splitter, like this. Then configure your software to output the master out to one stereo channel and monitor to another, and you’re set (look for specific tutorial in your software of choice when you have selected yours).
That’s for the price of 10 coins. If you’re willing to spend a couple hundred bucks, take a look in this. I started with original Numark Mixtrack and it was enough for a few years, and cost was around 200 euros.
Most importantly, look for music you like, learn about phrasing, beatmatching, harmonic mixing and use your ears.
Hope this helps at least a bit. I suggest that you read basic lessons about DJing from (for example) DJTT blog and see a few youtube tutorials, just to get your learning process started.